First Impressions
| | | }} | gueststarring = | | | | }} | costarring = | | | | | | | }}}} }} "First Impressions" is the third episode of the second season of Angel and the twenty-fifth episode overall. Written by Shawn Ryan and directed by James A. Contner, it was originally broadcast on October 10, 2000 on the WB network. Cordelia has a vision in which Gunn is fighting for his life. With Angel spending larger amounts of time asleep, thanks to Darla's influence, Cordelia can't wake him and ends up going to help Gunn by herself. Gunn and Cordelia then spend the episode together trying to find a demon, Deevak, from Cordelia's vision, and also search for Angel's stolen car. Synopsis After talking with The Host at the demon bar about his future, Angel walks out and encounters Darla. The two dance and talk before they kiss passionately. Angel then awakens, shaken by the disturbing dream. While Angel sleeps late, Cordelia and Wesley clean and organize their new office. Gunn arrives at the hotel, expecting Angel to be awake and able to help him. When Angel finally wakes up, David Nabbit is there to offer financial advice in regards to Angel's investment in the hotel. The whole gang, with Gunn tagging along, meet up with a man named Jameel to get information about a demon named Deevak. Gunn gets violent when Jameel won't talk, but the interruption of a pack of vampires prevents Gunn from getting answers. After dusting the three vampires with quite a bit of effort, everyone complains about their injuries. After dropping Angel off at the hotel and returning home, Cordelia gets a vision of Gunn in danger. First she calls Angel, but he is stuck in deep dreams which include Darla, and doesn't wake. Wesley also doesn't answer his phone, so she decides to go help Gunn alone. She finds him fighting another man, Joey, at his place, and attacks his opponent with a small axe she brought. It turns out, though, that he is in the midst of a training session, so Cordelia has embarrassed him in front of his subordinates and injured his opponent unnecessarily. Gunn tries to get rid of her, but Angel's car, which she borrowed, is gone. Gunn agrees to help her try to find the car. Elsewhere, Wesley awakens Angel, but, with Cordelia having taken Angel's car, Angel is forced to ride on Wesley's motorcycle, wearing his extra (pink) helmet in order to help save Gunn. Angel ridicules the pink helmet and doesn't want to wear it. With Cordelia at his side, Gunn tracks down Desmond, who stole Angel's car. Before he can get information on the car's whereabouts, a huge pack of vampires attack the party. Gunn fends off most of them, but one of Gunn's close friends, Veronica, is cut badly by a piece of broken glass. Gunn reacts badly to the fact that Veronica nearly died, especially because he can't forget his sister's death. He is clearly tormented by guilt. Angel and Wesley arrive in time to witness the aftermath of the party, and find the location of Deevak through one of the surviving vampires at the party. After finally finding Angel's car, Gunn also finds Deevak. Holding Gunn by the throat and Cordelia by the arm, Deevak turns into Jameel. After Cordelia sprays Jameel with mace (a weapon Gunn had previously ridiculed Cordelia for having), he lets go of Cordelia and Gunn long enough to revert back to his ugly, demonic form. Angel and Wesley arrive to help. Angel attacks Deevak with the maligned pink helmet, and then finally kills Deevak with Cordelia's axe, another weapon Gunn had laughed at Cordelia about. Cordelia warns Gunn that he himself was the danger she saw in her vision, because of the unnecessary dangers he places himself in. She intends to help prevent him from destroying himself. Angel dreams that he returns to the hotel and Darla is there to comfort him. As he sleeps and dreams of his romantic encounters with his sire, Darla is revealed to truly be present in Angel's room as he sleeps and climbs over Angel in bed and kisses him. Continuity * This episode marks the beginning of Darla's mental games against Angel, starting by interfering with his dreams. Body Count *Two vampires, dusted by Angel *Two vampires, dusted by Gunn *Deevak, killed by Angel with an axe Behind the Scenes Pop Culture References *The karaoke host mentions the songs Send in the Clowns and Tears of a Clown . *The title is a reference to the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice, which was originally named First Impressions. Just as in this episode, the novel is about two very different people who come to revise their first impressions of each other after spending some time together. In the previous season, the title "Sense & Sensitivity" was chosen as a reference to Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility. *''Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope: Gunn compares Wesley to C-3PO. *Cordelia says Gunn should act less like Michael Madsen in ''Reservoir Dogs ''and a bit more like Guy Pearce in ''L.A. Confidential. *Gunn is boycotting movies because Denzel Washington was robbed of the Oscar for Malcolm X. International titles *'German: '''Die Stunde des Deevak ''(The hour of the Deevak) *'French: '''Premières impressions ''(First impressions) Music *Andy Hallett- "Get Here" *Kurupt- "Ride With Us" *Robert J. Kral - "Dreaming of Darla" *Robert J. Kral- original score Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors *As with previous episodes, there are a number of things visible in the far left and right sides of the widescreen frame - the so-called "safety" buffers for non-widescreen broadcast - which were not intended to be seen. For instance, after Wesley wakes Angel up from his dream, they awkwardly acknowledge Angel's nakedness—but in a previous shot, he is clearly wearing white boxers. (The WB network did not broadcast the series in widescreen until the third season, starting in September 2001.) *At the end of the episode, when Darla is dream-seducing Angel and is supposed to be naked, you get glimpses of her underwear and of the band-aids covering her nipples *At the beginning of the episode, the gang (Angel, Gunn, Cordelia, and Wes) meet with Jameel, who is supposed to tell them where to find the demon Deevak, but he ends up backing out. We find out at the end of the episode that Jameel is Deevak, but just as he knew that Doyle was part demon immediately upon meeting him in the pilot episode, Angel should have been able to easily tell that Jameel wasn't human by his scent. Other *Cordelia sports an outfit identical to the one Buffy Summers wore in "The Gift" and "I Will Remember You". *This episode is included in The Vampire Anthology: Gunn DVD. nl:First Impressions Category:Angel Season 2